Sarah Palin
Sarah Palin a.k.a. Sarah Louise Palin is the current Governor of Alaska, a post she has held since election in 2006, and gained notoriety as the controversial 2008 Vice Presidential running mate of John McCain. She quit her position as Alaska Governor on July 3, 2009. Palin in 2012? Palin's 2012 ambitions face several serious obstacles: : poor performance as a VP candidate as exemplified by gaffs revealing her lack of knowledge about international affairs and revelations of a spending spree for clothign using party funds : decomposition of the Christian Right as a voting bloc as many less prosperous Evangelical Protestants rediscover their inner liberal in the face of increasing economic inequality and other Evangelical Protestants are turning away from political involvement altogether. : the hostility of market conservatives who assume that the proper subirdinate role of the Christian Right is to mobilize votes but not to name the party's presidential nominee. VP Selection Question Why was Palin selected by McCain as running mate? The best answer is that as a member of the Christain Right and as a middle aged woman, she brought ideological and identity balance to the team. Lorenzo Benet speculates in Trailblazer: An Intimate Biography of Sarah Palin that she was on the VP shortlist 6 months earler than was admitted and was lobbying for the job by increasing her national profile. Another answer is that McCain understood he was likely to lose the election becuase of the economy and the greater charisma of his opponent, and decided to add Palin to the ticket as a way to explain away his defeat. Issue Positions Opposed to Keynseian Counter-Cyclical Government Spending Palin has joined the posturing of Republican Governors who have rejected some or all of the Obama Stimulus Package. On March 19, Palin announced that she was declining nearly half of the Federal dollars that would have helped her state's citizens: "We won’t be bound by federal strings in exchange for dollars, nor will we dig ourselves a deeper hole in two years when these federal funds are gone," Palin said in a statement. “Simply expanding state government under this federal stimulus package creates an unrealistic expectation that the state will continue these programs when the federal funds are no longer available." Opposed to Universal Health Care In an August 7 posting on her Facebook page, Palin claimed that President Obama's health care plan would result in a "death panel" that is fundamentally "evil." Opposed to Abortion and Stem-Cell Research Urging the audience at the Vanderburgh County Right to Life Banquet on April 16, 2009 to work for a "culture of life," Palin stated that, "Life is ordained, life is precious," and that "I know for sure my son is perfect just as he is, made in the image of God." Source So what...God is male? Favors Civility, But Only After She Has Viciously Attacked After claiming that President Obama's health care plan would result in a "death panel" that is fundamentally "evil" on August 7, Palin called for civility in the debate on health care reform. Political Career Palin was born on February 11, 1964, Palin is the first female Governor of Alaska and the youngest person elected as governor of the state. Palin began her political career as a member of the Wasilla, Alaska, city council from 1992 to 1996 and the city's mayor from 1996 to 2002. After an unsuccessful campaign for Lieutenant Governor of Alaska in 2002, she chaired the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. Family Values Crisis A strident "family values" Christian Right conservative, Palin continues to be dogged by family problems that seem to flag a values crisis in the home. The problems have become non-election year fodder for comedians, fed by Palin's seeming determination to serve as their target. Responding to a joke by David Letterman, Plain remarked on Facebook that, "Concerning Letterman's comments about my young daughter (and I doubt he'd ever dare make such comments about anyone else's daughter): 'Laughter incited by sexually-perverted comments made by a 62-year-old male celebrity aimed at a 14-year-old girl is not only disgusting, but it reminds us some Hollywood/NY entertainers have a long way to go in understanding what the rest of America understands – that acceptance of inappropriate sexual comments about an underage girl, who could be anyone's daughter, contributes to the atrociously high rate of sexual exploitation of minors by older men who use and abuse others.'" Here Palin may have revealed that her conceived "rest of America" is actually a projection of her own anxieties, resentments and wishes. See Also * God’s Army: A Short Guide to Sarah Palin’s Extreme Religious Worldview * Palin Telephone Support for Miss California Prejean Huffington Category:Alaska Republicans